This book "Glossary of Grammatical Terms in Traditional Malayalam Grammars" by Dr. C.S. Jayakumari Kunjamma will be of much use for the linguists in general and those who work on Indian languages in particular. The ancient Indian grammatical tradition has two major subdivisions viz. The Sanskritic tradition and the Tamil tradition. Though both of these are interlinked, there exist many variations with respect to the technical terms used in them. It is because of the fact that Sanskrit and Tamil belong to two different language families and hence it is quite natural to have some divergences in their grammatical structures, in addition to some commonality due to geographical reasons. Thus the Sanskrit grammars are framed for describing the structure of Sanskrit while the Tamil traditional grammatical work Tolkappiyam was moulded for the description of the Tamil language of the period of its author.
In most of the modern Indian languages including those belonging to the Dravidian family, the Sanskrit mould was utilized due to the influence of the Sanskrit language. The traditional grammatical works of Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada stand testimony to this fact. However in some of the Malayalam grammatical treatises, though mostly Sanskrit technical terms are used, a few Tamil technical terms and categorizations can be seen. Even in those Sanskrit terms, one can see differences among the Malayalam grammarians. Hence the present work of Dr. C.S. Jayakumari Kunjamma can be used as a key to all those who peruse the Malayalam traditional grammatical works.
I am sure that this publication of ISDL will be gladly received by linguists all over India.
Broadly speaking, Malayalam Grammar can be classified into two groups those written by native scholars and those written by foreigners. Differences are bound to exist in the approaches of native people who write grammar of language in everyday use and those of foreigners who attempt to analyse our language in their perspective.
There are different treatises on Malayalam Grammar. All these grammars are in line with Sanskrit grammar. They analyse the language through phonology, morphology, syntax etc. But George Mathan has left out syntax. A student of grammar finds it difficult to identify and analyse a particular concept due to the diversity of grammatical terms used in these different texts. For instance, a researcher who glances through the content page of these grammars finds the following terms -sabdanyunam, pereccam and namadheyam, all of which refers to the same concept 'relative participle'. This may lead to confusion which will hinder comprehension. An evaluation, comparison and redefinition of the grammatical terms used by different grammarians are highly necessary in the field of Malayalam grammar for research and teaching. This will help linguists, students and teachers of language and literature. The present work will give a clear insight regarding the grammatical terms in different grammar texts.
The year of publication given within brackets is considered as the basis for this study. All references cited in this project are from that edition of the text.
The total number of terms used in the above six grammatical works are given in brackets Malayaļabhaṣa-vyakaraņam (310), Malayalmayute vyakaranam (190), Keraļabhaṣavyakaraņam (220), Keraļakaumudi (330), Keralapaņiniyam (440) and Vyakaraṇamitram (750).
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